Ironwood Builders

Bowie Howard’s concrete began to crack immediately after the work was finally done. 10 months later it is rubbish. Hundreds of cracks and large chunks coming out. Bowie would not return calls and emails except once where he attacked me personally and said the shoddy work was because I was a bad customer. I have had 2 different concrete contractors look at this mess to see if it can be fixed. They both pointed out immediately that it was poured incorrectly. Bowie does not stand behind his work. He price gouges, lies and cannot be trusted. I am out $20,000 for this pike of rubbish he won’t even come out to look at.

I am extremely pleased with the result. Punctuality and skill of Ironwood builders was EXCELLENT! I have no complaints. In-fact, I was so pleased, I have contracted Ironwood Builders to do my fence.

they arrived on time and were ready to go. can't complain about the job they did or hoe they did it. My problem was about a month after the job I started seeing cracks in the new driveway. When I contacted Dewey concerning this he made an appointment to come by and look at it. He never showed up. I made numerous follow-up calls that went unanswered, and he would not return several voice mails. Seems like as long as the money was going from me to him he was ready to work, but when I asked him to stand behind his work, As it PLAINLY STATES ON HIS WEBSITE, He didn't want anything to do with me. I was going to have him build me a pergola shortly after the driveway, but he wouldn't return my calls about that either.

They did a good job and cleaned up the mess.

The crew worked from sun up to sun down and were generally very skilled and professional. The owner came by after the job and was dissatisfied with the clean up so he called the crew back to 'do it right' . He was responsive to my requests for changes in the original specifications and, when invoiced, the additional work was clearly detailed and priced. I was very satisfied with the overall performance.

They were due to start the job on a Wednesday so we removed the carpet, furniture and baseboards the weekend prior to the day they were to start work. They called on Tuesday and told me it would be Thursday before they could start the job. I was told when I got the estimate that the job would take 3 days. We left our home on Thursday and we were unable to return until Monday evening when the job was complete. We were a little frustrated that we were unable to return to our home after the three days that we were told it would take but we were pleased with the way the floors looked when we returned. After two weeks and very little wear on the floors the stain began to flake up and scratch off in several areas. They returned and repaired the spots and stained a 5-6 inch area in front of one of the doors that they had missed. When they stained the place in front of the door that had been missed they sprayed the stain on our new carpet. Because the stain that was used was an acrylic based product I was able to clean the majority of the stain off of the new carpet. It has now been a week since they came and repaired the areas where the stain had flaked or scratched off. There are now new areas where the stain has scratched off. The contractor came and looked at the floors again. He was unable to figure out why the stain had not adhered to the floor. Due to this he gave us a refund so that we could have another type flooring done. We felt that Ironwood Builders stood behind their workmanship by refunding our money so that we could have the floors redone.

I've changed my grade from D to F b/c of issues that have developed since 11/20/12.
11/13/2012:
The personable owner spent quite a bit of time talking. He quoted one price on three projects(but changed them to higher prices on 11/14/2012 when he sent the invoice). I was told it would take 3 days and quot;at the mostand quot; to tear out my back patio, front patio and repair sidewalk in front. (It took 7days.) I OK'd the job despite the price differences, but reminded him of the differences (about $300)..
11/14/2012:
At 11:00a.m. workers had not shown up. I called the boss who then told me that he'd said that they would arrive around Noon. ?? (One-half day lost of the three days)
They eventually arrived around1p.m., did good work, but quit working in the backyard when they thought the gas meter across the alley was broken ,and moved their work to the front patio. The gas company who could find nothing wrong with the meter which I told the workers who disputed this information. My husband had arrived from work and said he would follow up. They left around 4:30-5p, saying they would come back tomorrow. Husband verified with the gas company nothing was wrong with the meter.
11/15/2012:
It is 11:00a the next day......no workers. (Another half-day lost.)
I called the boss who said they were on another job while they were and quot;waiting for the meter to be fixed.and quot; I told him that there was nothing wrong with the meter. His excuse was that he didn't know this and had been and quot;waitingand quot; for ME to call HIM to tell him the meter was OK before they returned to work here. Why didn't the person who told him there was a problem tell him?
I told him that wasn't my job to do that......that HE should have called ME before he sent his workers to another job. I then told him that I had already told his workers the meter was OK before they left, and even if it hadn't, they could have been working on the half-removed patio in my front yard and the sidewalks which haven't even been touched. He replied that he was unaware of all this. He then repeated that he had been waiting for ME to call HIM. I replied that I wasn't the contractor nor the supervisor of this job. I said, and quot; I guess this job was going to go over 3 days, then?and quot; To which he replied that I couldn't blame him or his workers for this.
So.......who has the responsibility here?
11/16/2012:
It's 12:00p and so far no workers. (Another half day lost.)
--The gang showed up in the afternoon to work some more on the back patio and to finish the jack hammering on the front patio. My husband helped when he got home from work to remove the cement from the back patio.
11/17/2012:
Workers showed up early this morning to finish taking out the back/front patio. I told them to halt the work until I talked to the boss (who I'd not seen since the gas meter incident and then only because I happened to walk outside on the back patio
that day) as I'd noticed some problems with the front patio where the forms were incorrectly installed, and then....most disturbing were the multiple chips (approx 22) in the cement of the front edge of my 20ft long front porch (from the jack hammering done to remove the patio the day before), and it was down to the aggregate on the entire face of the porch for about 18 inches. There were also chips on the edge of my driveway which is adjacent to what had been my front patio. At this point I wasn't too sure I wanted to continue to work with this company as the communication between the boss/his crew/me was definitely wanting and I wasn't too sure who was responsible for what as I couldn't get any information about who did the jackhammering, who the supervisor was that day, etc.
Workers stopped/called the boss who said he's be there in 30-40 minutes. Trucks waited for over an hour before leaving. When boss arrived, he was angry at me, saying he wished that I hadn't called them off the job as that I'd and quot;causedand quot; him to lose $200 by calling them off the work. I replied they had waited for him out front. He didn't show up!
I told him that at that point I wasn't sure that I wanted to go ahead with this job with him, showing him all the problems: the chips on my front porch, and the forms (which his workers had insisted were correctly installed) and questions I had about the back patio as I had not seen him but once since this all began. He argued about the chips on the front porch, saying they were old (they weren't). He eventually conceded but the words were heated. He also argued about the forms saying they were correctly installed, which I would not accept because the crookedly installed/badly installed forms were about 3 in. too short leaving a big gap between the patio and my flower bed from which water could flow out of the flowerbed. He agreed they had been poorly constructed but still did not see how the gap existed, but he agreed to have them set back. He then said the cement was due to be poured at 11a.m. on Monday.
Monday, 11/ 19/2012:
The forms were corrected on the front patio, and the cement job on the back patio was done very, very well and the workers were polite, hard working. Wonderful job!
However, the cement job on one of the biggest front sidewalk (about 6-7 ft long) could not be completed as not enough cement had not been ordered, which happens. The shorter one (about 3ft) was completed. Despite my being reassured that day by the person installing the forms for the front sidewalk that there would be safety tape placed around the hole and a piece of plywood put over the deep hole (about 4and quot; deep)until the cement arrived the next day, there were none when I looked that night. Husband and I dragged a piece of plywood and covered the hole until the next morning. Workers show up promptly the next day;but, the cement truck did not arrive until about 4p.m. I give those men great credit for having the patience to wait that long in front for the truck . And, the job again was done beautifully.
Tuesday, 11/20/2012:
Forms had been removed from the sidewalk the next morning when I looked out,but the dirt that had been dug out to install the forms had not been replaced, nor around front patio, despite being reassured by the workers repeatedly this would happen. I'm guessing the boss again pulled them off my job to go to another job with no continuity of instructions for what needed to be completed.
I now have a approx. 4inch by 4inch deep trench along both sides of the 6 feet of sidewalk, and the same along the 3 ft long sidewalk further down, which are safety hazards. Also, there is a approx. 2 inch wide trench along the side of my front patio that will allow water to flow out the flower bed because of the opening left that was not filled in with dirt (as I had been reassured it would be).
Thinking someone would show up eventually to replace the dirt as promised, husband waited until yesterday afternoon (11/25/12) to call the boss to say the dirt needed to be replaced. No one answered. He left a message. (1:49pm on Monday) no answer has been received from the owner of this business to replace the dirt, so husband took the dirt the crew had left on our grass in the backyard and some from the alley where it had been left, and refilled the gaps so at least the grass can grow back.
Today is 11/26/12 and we've still not heard from the boss/owner of this outfit.
Overall, I think the workers do a good/great job. I think they are caught between the customer and their boss.
It's just the management that is lacking. Greatly.
11/27/12 and we've still not heard from the boss/owner of this outfit. It took from 11/14 until 11/20 the complete the
job.......6 days.
-UPDATE:
11/29/12: My sprinkler system along my front sidewalk is broken. The dirty water runs down the sidewalk into the street. My hu

The work was outstanding. They arrived exactly when they said they would be there, busted thier hump for 2 days. The bill was to the penny of the estimate. Even the clean up was outstanding. I have never delt with better people

Jason and his crew are true craftsmen. We actually asked 3 contractors to bid on the project and the other 2 were unable to provide a bid as they felt it was too complicated. Ironwood did an incredible job and did so very effieciently. We enjoyed working with these guys and would highly recommend them to anyone needing quality work done.

They were very polite and gave excellent customer service. The project was completed by when he said it would be. The price was very reasonable compared to some other companies. As a matter of fact, we have recommended them to our friends who have asked about other concrete work.

Prompt estimate, completed project as scheduled, cleaned up following the job, price as estimated. Quality of work A+. Overall great to work with.

I have lived in my home for 30 years for the most part without problems until I hired Ironwood Builders 3-09 for repairs and to remodel my kitchen. Work began 3-26-09 with the understanding of completion before 5-09. A verbal agreement was also made with, Mr. Raymond, for a row of metal cabinets to be installed in my garage in exchange for the remaining metal cabinets, my old working dishwasher, the working double stove and a stove for parts, which were removed from my property with no attempt made to install cabinets as agreed. It became increasingly clearer that Mr. Raymond was incompetent and attempts to finish the project were resulting in damage to work already done or to my home. Work behaviors were becoming increasingly more intolerable primarily crew taking/using/going through my personal property, including going through drawers, bulling, not using licensed people to do the electrical work, and the crew taking no efforts to protect my property. A new crew was requested of the owner (Bowie Howard) and was denied. Mr. Raymond requested an additional $2,000 6-14-09 and I acknowledged the contract had been broken. I then contacted, Lowery Plumbers to fix my air conditioner, fix my new kitchen faucet, RD Electric to get my new dishwasher running and two outlets so I could have phone service and have an outlet. The bill from Lowery Plumbing shows that damage done to my air conditioner "the above conditions were obviously accelerated due to paint fumes sucked into return grill while system was left on during painting/remolding at home. Customer advised unit was not shut off during work". Another bill from Lowery was to re-install the kitchen faucet. The bill from RD Electric Service states "Found open splices in attic need to be put in boxes and brought up to NEC Standards". Mr. Raymond has done the only unlicensed electrical work ever done on my home. A large window was removed due to measuring mistakes to bring in two cabinets and is being held in place by 5 screws, the roof still leaks, I have no mantel, paneling repair and the door do not match existing wood, the bar top is of different widths and Formica improperly installed. In the kitchen there is a ½" gap at he outlet of repair sheet rock, Formica has several large gaps and buckles, there is an outlet that still does not work, crown molding has seams, valance is broken, 33 seams not sanded, 3 types of wood were used, there are in excess of 100 nail dents in the cabinets, 2 varnish smears, 7 sanding scars, 3 varnish runs, several empty gaps in the cabinets, 13 -2" styles (area between cabinet doors), 4 -3"styles, 7 -1 ½" styles, 2 - 2 ¾", 7 - 4", 1-1", 1-¾", 1 - 2¾", 2 -5", the sink is not sealed, Formica is not sealed, microwave not installed properly and there has been damage done to floor and wall paper in the kitchen. Mr. Howard came to my home 6-18-09 promised a to correct the mistakes. He returned 7-1-09 with his painting subcontractor and I was told I should overlook mistakes